Sunday, February 02, 2014

Sunday Morning Comin' Down -- UPDATE

Nothing I could write about the plate of cold sick and chewed-out lumps of petrified Beltway sanctimony that is served up every Sunday by every major network could possibly outdo the chill of sheer, exhausted "Jesus H. R. Murrow, just nuke 'em from orbit already"

Bill Kristol, the editor and publisher of The Weekly Standard, has joined ABC News as a contributor, "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos announced on Sunday.

A source familiar with the negotiations says the former Fox News commentator has landed with ABC in a handshake agreement that they're about to sign. ABC News spokesperson Heather Riley also confirmed Kristol's move in an email.

The agreement, one source said, includes regular appearances on the Sunday show, as well as special events and other political-relaed events. But there's also a window that allows him to do other shows on cable television.

...

Jonathan Greenberger, executive producer of "This Week," said in a statement Kristol is "an original thinker" that will make their team stronger:

“Bill makes our outstanding team of contributors and analysts even stronger. He’s an original thinker with a unique perspective on the political and cultural landscape, and we look forward to hearing his voice on the 'This Week' roundtable on a regular basis."

Those of us with functional memories may recall back in 2008 when, for no explicable reason other than his membership in the Neocon Mutual Aid and Protection Society, Bloody Bill Kristol was handed an op-ed column in the New York Times.

At the NYT, to no one's surprised, he continued right on being the same blood-drunk lout he had always been.

He lasted there for less than a year -- cheek-by-jowl with his former employee and fellow Neocon Mutual Aid and Protection Society member, David Brooks, who had also been awarded an op-ed column in the New York Times for no explicable reason.

Prior to that (and also for no explicable reason reason other than Beltway inbreeding) Mr. Kristol had been handed another wingnut welfare check in the form of a job at Time Magazine, which he also threw away thanks to his own laziness and ineptitude:

A senior writer at Time magazine recounted to me a similar experience with Kristol following his stint in 2006-07. “His conservative ideas were cutting edge and influential,” I was told. “But his sloppy writing and failure to fact check what he wrote made us queasy.”

Prior to that, Mr. Kristol had been expertly filleted and by Stephen Colbert and served up in a broth of his own panic-sweat on national teevee, so it's not as if his future employers were in the dark about what they were paying for.

But pay him they did and pay him they still do.

Because there is a Club.

Because the Beltway Insider Syndicate -- The Sundaycate (tm) -- bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. The Beltway Insider Syndicate never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away; as for memory that they have been hideously wrong about everything since forever, that will pass away too.

Once we moved on to the panel, however, Gerson And Gergen fell immediately into their venerable comedy routine, "Who Went Nuts First?"

GERSON: Right. It's pathetic. Moving forward I think serious Republicans know this. They question the timing before the midterms. I think there are serious questions here. But as far as the 2016 election, that's probably the place you're going to get the real leadership on this issue, because it's a national political problem. You know, these primaries are going to be a test of how rational the Republican process is when it comes to immigration. On one side you have a primal scream, on the other side you have a political strategy. And it's going to be a test as it moves forward.

GERGEN: David, this is an issue in which it's not only whether you get a law passed, but whether you're seen as dragged kicking and screaming to pass the law, or whether you're actually in favor of it heart and soul. This is an issue in which the Republicans instead of sort of dancing back, need to be very aggressive. We need to solve this problem and let the White House, let the Democrats be the ones who are picking fights and slowing it down.

Who knew that the Republican base was made up primarily of primal screaming bigots who, yesterday, got their undergarments in a sheepshank because Coca Cola ran an ad that suggested that a patriotic song could be translated into other languages? How could this possibly have happened with sensible people like Michael Gerson and David Gergen in positions of power and influence? This is how Bill Kristol keeps getting hired, by the way.